Erica Verrillo has written seven books and published five. She doesn't know why anyone with an ounce of self-preservation would ever want to publish. But, if you insist on selling your soul to the devil, learn how to do it right: marketing, literary agents, book promotion, editing, pitching your book, how to get reviews, and ... most important of all ... everything she did wrong.
In the interests of protecting the right to free speech, she did not vote for Trump.
#NotMyPresident

Thursday, November 29, 2012

It occurred to me some time during the last century that it would be a good idea to put up a website. I did so and, at the time, thought it was brilliant – not that I could do a thing with it. (Much like my hair, it required the services of a professional.) Everything seemed to be written in some kind of code.

Several years later, when it dawned on me that having an up-to-date website might be advantageous (rather than one that reflected my activities of a decade earlier), I began to search for someone who understood this mysterious code.

The place to find people who knew about things like websites was obviously online. So, I placed an ad on guru.com. “Wanted: A computer-type person who can put up a five-page website for me. I write books.”

Within three days I was deluged by dozens of emails. Soon, the offers – ranging from $699 to $4000 – numbered in the hundreds. I began to receive staticky Skype calls late at night. (Apparently, Dubai is in a different time zone.) “What exactly do you want?” they asked. “SEO? Joomla? Slideshows?” I couldn't answer any of their questions. I despaired.

This was my first mistake: I assumed that other, more technical, people would be able to help me design my website. My second mistake came shortly afterward.

Realizing that I knew nothing about websites, I began to investigate. I discovered that there were free websites available everywhere, and that they were based on templates. What's more, these templates required no computer skills whatsoever. They were designed for people like me. (And they were used by those very people who wanted to charge me $699 for one page.)

I began to look at templates. Oh, lord. There were thousands of them. I spent days looking at WordPress templates, Google templates, free templates of all kinds. My head hurt. This was my second mistake. I assumed that I could pick a template. I couldn't – there were too many of them, and none of them seemed appropriate for a writer.

Then the realization hit me. I was going about this all wrong. There were other authors in the world, and
they had websites!
All I needed to do was find one that I liked and copy the format.

So, I went to http://www.smartauthorsites.com/ and looked at their clients' websites until I found one that was appropriate for me. (I also browsed on the Authors Guild site and elsewhere, but Smart Author Sites was the most helpful.) Then, I went to Weebly, which is the simplest website builder for the technologically challenged, and located a template that was closest to the author's website I had found.

Looking at what other authors had done helped me to choose a good template on Weebly, which I accomplished painlessly in a less than an hour. From there it was easy. I imitated. (And, unless reinventing the wheel is your idea of fun, so should you.) Components of an author's website

This is the website model used by hundreds of successful authors (and which I appropriated without hesitation):

The first page should consist of a photo of you that shows your personality – according to your subject matter (children's book authors, smile! and look trustworthy; serious literary novelists, look deep). There should be a short, interesting bio. This page is also where you can put the latest professional news about yourself. (Upcoming publications, endorsements, speaking engagements, and so on.)

The second page features your books: images of the covers, one paragraph descriptions, and where to purchase.

Page three is an enticing excerpt from forthcoming work or your most recent release.

Page four is a selection of your other published writing – essays, short stories, if you have written them. Or page four can be an events calendar. (This page is really up for grabs. But, please, no photos of your cat.)

The fifth page is your blog. Everyone who is anyone writes a blog. Besides, authors' blogs are always read by prospective agents.

“Contact us” comes last. You must make yourself available to
potential readers, agents, and Nobel Prize nominations. Don't post your email address - use a form to avoid spam and dodgy proposals of marriage.

Keep it simple

A website should be easy to read. Stick to conventional typefaces, and do not, under any circumstances, choose a light typeface against a dark background. It's true you can do just about anything with typefaces and colors - but don't let that tempt you into chartreuse or, god forbid, brown. (I've seen that combination on an author's website, and it's not only ugly, it's a sin.) It may not be trendy, but use a plain white background and black typeface.

Avoid trends. Gray backgrounds used to be a trend. They were hard to read and have now been replaced by large images. These are a waste of space, and hopefully will go the way of gray backgrounds. (The only images should be of you and your books.) The risk of following trends is that your website will rapidly look outdated. Stick to a classic look and your website will never go out of style.

Final words

Even if you have not yet been published, you absolutely MUST have an author's website. Websites are not optional; they are a requirement for anyone with something to sell. (Authors are not only selling their writing, they are selling themselves.) At the very least, put up your first page (bio and photo), a blog, and a contact page. If you want to talk about your current writing project, do so on your blog.

Unless it is a chapter from your forthcoming book, do not post your unpublished writing for readers to critique!! There are forums for that sort of thing. Your website is where you must come across as a professional. Take yourself seriously, and others will as well.

Monday, November 19, 2012

If you have stumbled across this blog post, it's because you've entered a time warp. Technorati is no longer listing blogs. As of May 29, 2014, it is now an advertising platform. Facebook has also "monetized" and soon Twitter will as well. You can see Technorati's final list of top 100 blogs here._________________

Listing your blog on Technorati is a little complicated, but it is
well worth it. With over a million blogs, Technorati is [was] the mother of
all blog directories.

The entire registration system is automated, so
if you run into problems nobody will help you. This means you have to
follow all of their instructions to the letter.

If you follow these steps, you shouldn't have any problems listing
your blog.

1) Write a new blog entry, but do not publish it.

2) Go to the Technorati website and create an account ("join").

3) Add your blog title, URL, blog feed URL, and description. (To find your blog feed URL, scroll down to the bottom of your blog page and hover over "Posts (Atom)." The URL will appear in green in the lower left corner of your screen.)

You will receive an email almost immediately with the subject line
“Technorati Claim in Progress.” Click on the link provided in the
email for instructions. Scroll down to “Claim Status.” Click
“check claim.” You will see this note:

Claim Status – (your blog)Technorati will need to verify that you are an author of the
blog by looking for a unique code. Please put the following short
code [ … ] within a new blog post and publish it. This code must
appear in the published post and it must also appear in your
corresponding RSS feed once published. Once it is published, use the
"Verify Claim Token" button on this page to tell Technorati
your blog is ready for Technorati to verify the claim token and
proceed to final review.

4) Copy and paste the 12-symbol token into the body of your
new unpublished post. (The best place to put it is between two paragraphs.) It must be an unpublished post for the process
to work!

5) Publish your post. Then go back to your account and click “verify
your claim token.” You will get a confirmation email in about 10
minutes.

Note: You may receive the following rejection:.

Thank you for
submitting your blog claim on Technorati. Unfortunately, we have
encountered a problem reading your site's data. Please log into [technorati] and go to [your account] to update any necessary site information and continue the claim process.

Don't panic, just check that your
token appears on your published blog and not just on your blog
editing page. Go back to your account, and repeat the process.

6) At this point sit back and wait a few
minutes for your next email, which will be:

Thank you for submitting your blog
claim on Technorati. We have successfully crawled your blog and found
the claim token, and your claim is now awaiting review.

7) The next email you receive will be
this confirmation:

Congratulations, your claim is now
complete! Please allow 24 to 48 hours for Authority and recent posts
to begin showing for your site now that it has been successfully
claimed. Once they are there, we will update your site's Authority
once per day.

At first you may not see your site
listed in the Technorati Blog Directory for all of the categories
you've selected. As you write blog posts around those topics, you
should see your Topical Authority in those categories begin to rise.

In my experience,
it takes roughly a day for a blog embedded in an author's website to
get confirmed. It takes a grand total of 15 minutes – start to
finish – for Technorati to list a Blogger site (yet another reason
to duplicate your website blog on Blogger).

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Marketing
is the bane of an author's existence. It distracts us from what we
really want to be doing: writing. It forces us to enter into the
uncivilized world of advertising, where strident ads claw their way
into the consumer's consciousness, convincing the public to buy what
they don't want, can't use, but must have.

It's a jungle out there
and, frankly, we don't like getting our hands dirty. Writers are shy,
reclusive creatures, who would much rather sit at home, sipping
Darjeeling in our pajamas, quietly composing the Great American
Novel.

This
is a pleasant fantasy, but it has nothing to do with publishing. Publishing rests on the concept that people other than yourself will read, and (hopefully) buy your book. Nobody will buy your book without these two essentials: marketing and promotion.

1) Marketing is what you do before you publish. It establishes the need for a product. (An example of marketing - "Coming soon to a theater near you!") Pre-release reviews, cover releases, pre-orders, and interviews prior to releasing your book are all marketing strategies.

2) Promotion is what happens after you publish. It satisfies the need for the product you promoted during your marketing campaign. The product is your book. (An example of promotion - "Now available on DVD!") Advertising, blog tours, free days and giveaways are all promotional strategies.

Whether you are an unpublished neophyte or an author
who has hit the big league, marketing - establishing a need for something - is the name of the game. Without it, promotion is like swimming against the tide.

Like any game, marketing has rules.

Rule
#1: When you market, you are not just selling a product – you are selling
yourself.

Regardless
of the concerted efforts of the publishing industry to turn books
into products, they are not. Books are ideas. They represent what is
in the author's mind – nothing more. Even if a book turns into a
fad, which is what every publisher hopes, it is still an idea. In this case, it is Your Idea, which means that what you write is inextricably bound to who
you are, or, better stated, who everyone thinks you are. (Which is why so many businesses like to put the word "trusted" in their blurbs.)

This
is how you begin:

First:
Define yourself. Who you are is not determined by who you actually
are, but by what you write. For example, if you write children's
books you are cheerful, accessible, and any mother would be happy to
leave her precious only child with you for a week. Your photograph will show
that person – a friendly smile (with teeth), wearing parental
clothing, in pleasant colors. If you write horror-thrillers, nobody would leave their children with you for a minute, so you can
go with a brooding photo, either in black and white or in very
subdued hues, no smile – or if you must, a Mona Lisa impersonation.
Avoid portrait studios. Your picture is worth a thousand careers, so
make sure it doesn't look like the one in your high school
yearbook.

Second:
Project yourself. Your website should reflect
your image. Of course, your writing will be showcased, but the site's
mood will be determined by your writer persona. Your picture should appear on the first page of
your website along with a brief above-the-fold bio. A different,
smaller portrait of you must be at the top of every other page on
your website. Anyone who views your website must feel as if she or he
is getting to know you. Your blog should have a theme in keeping with
what you write. (That means you cannot blog about your cat unless you
write books about cats.) You can blog about writing, of course, but a
lot of people do that, so unless you are famous, competition will be
fierce. And remember: You are a writer - even when you are blogging.
So give it your best.

Third:
Establish yourself. After you have set up your website and blog (you don't need to publish anything first), join online groups
appropriate to your writing themes, get on forums, and make comments
on other blogs. Use the name you write with – for example, if your
author name is your full first and last name, that will be your
“handle.” Be proud! Let people see your name, and your face. Write guest posts and articles. And
don't write anything that you would not want to be read, out loud, in
court, by a judge.

Fourth:
Share yourself. After you have spread your name around, it is time to
spread your website and blog. Join Linkedin, and post your website
and blog on the appropriate discussions. (Linkedin allows you to post a blog on their site.) Join every group you can think of, alumni associations, Writer's
Digest, Librarything, Goodreads, Google+, and post a profile with as much
detail as you can muster. Needless to say, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and every other form of social media that has been invented are tools for building a following.

Friday, November 16, 2012

You've
set up your website (you have, haven't you?), and you've begun a blog.
You are happily blogging away two or three times a week, secure in the belief
that every time you hit “Publish” your thoughts are winging their way through
the blogosphere, reaching millions of people who are hungry for your knowledge,
wit and/or wisdom.

Wrong.

The millions are not hungry. If
anything, they are overfed. According to NM (that's Nielson/McKinsey) Incite –
a company formed to“discover industry-specific consumer insights and build
relevant, differentiated and emotionally engaging brands … with the vision that
real-time, authentic consumer expression in social media transforms how
marketers build strong brands, create passionate and engaged brand communities,
and ultimately achieve superior sales outcomes” (so many buzz words, so little
content! I am sure you could write a better sentence than that!) - there were
181 million blogs around the world by 2011. Five years earlier there were only
36 million. Imagine how many there are today.

On second thought, don't imagine.
At an average yearly increase of 36 million there are now at least 217 million
blogs. But that's not nearly as impressive as the number of blogs posted every
day. (If you really want to get depressed, you can go to Worldometers and
watch, in real time, the daily world blog count – as they are being posted.
It's hypnotic. Go therenow.)

(One hour later.)

Where were we? Ah, yes.

If you actually want people to
read your blog, then you will have to “drive” them to it, either in your
cybercar, or using a cyberwhip (whatever makes you happy). Do the following:

1.Set up your blog as
part of your author's website. Then duplicate your blog on a separate blog,
preferably Blogger. (Blogger is an ugly glitch-filled mess, but Wordpress is
hard for Google search engines to find, and you are too old for Tumblr).

2.Blog regularly so
search engines can find you.

3.Once you have
accumulated ten blogs, start registering your blog on blog directories.
(Register your independent blog, not the one on your website. The automated
software that the largest blog directories use cannot detect embedded blogs.)
Here are two good lists of blog directories:

4.Write guest blogs.
Obviously, you want to post on the blogs that get a million viewers a day (the
“A list” blogs), but realistically speaking that is not going to happen. So
submit to those who blog about your subject matter.

If all these steps sound a lot
like how to break into the publishing world (fierce competition, shmoozing,
submissions, rejections followed by an overwhelming sense of futility), then,
by George, you've got it, you've really got it! But do not despair. The
fabulous thing about the Great Equalizer (aka the Internet) is that it really
is a democracy. You get to run your own campaign, and the masses get to vote for
you.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

There
are all kinds of editors, good ones, bad ones, and many in between. A
good editor is one who will give you a run for your money. She will
not only correct all your grammar errors, but will question you on
every detail, find logical inconsistencies, hold your feet to the
fire. Odds are, she will write, “Show, don't tell!” somewhere on
your manuscript.

A
bad editor will not do anything at all. Increasingly, editors – who
are generally underpaid and overworked – simply don't want to put
any time or effort into a manuscript. Like a homeowner who doesn't
want to fix up a house before putting it on the market, they want to
publish a book “as is.” Writers may think such a "hands off" approach is sheer heaven. After all, editors
who do nothing are great for an author's ego. But, believe it or not,
there are errors in your manuscript – of internal logic, of
grammar, and of sense. There always are. Trust me, you don't want
your readers (or reviewers) to point out your mistakes.

Good
editors are a dying breed, but great editors – ah, those are the
ghosts of the past. A great editor not only gives his authors a run
for their money, he brings out the best in them. A great editor puts
his own ego aside (a rarity), and instead of adhering to a rule book
(“Show, don't tell,” “Only one POV allowed”), follows the
author's lead. Great authors break the rules, and great editors let
them.

I
had a good editor at RH. She forced me to examine everything in my
manuscript – every chapter, every paragraph, every sentence, every
word, every punctuation mark. I fought her every step of the way -
and sometimes I was right. When I caved in to her insistence on
following the rule book it robbed something from my story. But, more
often than not, she was right. The trick to working with her was to
understand what she was getting at, and then adjust my manuscript –
slightly. In editing my first book - and this will always haunt me -
I deleted too much. This is a common mistake for first-time authors.
They throw the baby out with the bathwater.

I
have learned through trial and error that the best way to work with
editors is to walk the middle path. When they say “Jump,” don't
ask “How high?” Don't slavishly follow every
suggestion. Use your judgment. On the other hand, don't,
don't, don'ttell
them to sod-off – even mentally. They may be right. Take a step
back from your manuscript, take a deep breath, and then exercise your
skill as a writer. Make your manuscript shine as only you can –
with their guidance. If the editor is good, the final product will be
well worth it.

Gertrude
Stein's rejection letter merits a special place among rejections, if only because the publisher put so much effort into it. This parody
demonstrates the defining character flaw of publishers: they believe
they are the final arbiters of literary taste. Notwithstanding the possibility that, in this case, Fifield may have been right, one hardly needs to
point out that being a music critic does not make you Rachmaninov. Or
even a Rach knock-off.

The letter reads:

Dear Madam,

I am only one, only one, only one. Only one being, one at the same time. Not two, not three, only one. Only one life to live, only sixty minutes in one hour. Only one pair of eyes. Only one brain. Only one being. Being only one, having only one pair of eyes, having only one time, having only one life, I cannot read your M.S. three or four times. Not even one time. Only one look, only one look is enough. Hardly one copy would sell here. Hardly one. Hardly one.

Many thanks. I am returning the M.S. by registered post. Only one M.S. by one post.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Years ago, when I was teaching English
to Japanese English teachers (you had to
be there), one of my teacher/students informed me that, in her
school, the students did all the clean-up. “All?” I asked. "Oh,
yes," she informed me. They wiped the blackboards, swept and mopped
the floors, washed the windows. “It builds character,” she said.

Basically, things that build character
are comprised of anything that is disagreeable. For some strange
Calvinistic and/or Japanese reason, character cannot be built by
winning a prize, taking a swim, or eating my delicious apple streusel
cake.

One must suffer to have character.

I doubt that this is true in general,
but in specific, as it applies to writers, it is definitely a fact. It
is not necessary for you to fulfill the Romantic ideal: a sensitive,
unshaven (women too), starving creature agonizing in a garret. Yes,
you will eventually get to do all that. But the real suffering, the
real character building comes not in the process of writing - which
is sheer fun and therefore useless for building character - but in the
process of sharing what you've written.

These are the writer's steps to
building character:

Step 1: Don't publish too early. You
have written a book. Don't get it out there. Instead, get it
critiqued, as harshly as possible. You must bleed.

Step 2: When you have bled enough,
still don't try to publish. Write another book. Yes, that's what I
said. Write ANOTHER BOOK. What kind of writer do you expect to be if
you can only write one book? Then go back to your first book and
revise it.

Step 3: Write short stories and
articles. Get them critiqued. Bleed some more.

Step 4: Submit your short stories and
articles to top-ranking magazines and ezines. You will be rejected.
Bleed and revise. Submit again. Each time you get a rejection,
re-read your work and revise.

Step 5: AGH! Somebody published your
story! Your character is destroyed! Sadly, no. Read the published
version. It's amazing how many mistakes you can catch after your
story has been published. Ouch.

Step 6: At this point you have so much
character you need a transfusion. Start submitting your book to
agents. They will reject you. Each time you get a rejection, look at
your query letter and revise it. Submit again.

Step 7: AGGHHH! An agent wants to
represent you! Now, you're cooked. Don't get too comfy. She or he
will want to confiscate your manuscript and change everything in it. You
have to decide what to change and what not to change. You are faced with killing your darlings.Your character
is firming up nicely.

Step 8: You have followed your agent's
suggestions - or not, as the case may be. And NOTHING happens! Not
one single publisher is interested in your book. They say awful
things about it. You have to decide if some of these awful things are
true. They might be. Great character-building technique.

Step 9: AAAGGGGHHH!!! Someone wants to
publish your book!! You are fried!! You thought the agent was harsh.
Wait until you see what an EDITOR does to your manuscript!! It will
be drawn and quartered before your very eyes. They will change your
title. They will slap on a dreadful cover. You will want to die.

Step 10: You now have character. Write
another book. This time it had better be good.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

"To
Our Authors, Our
most important mission will always be to publish the work you entrust
to us for everyone, everywhere, in every format, and on every
platform. That mandate is a primary motivation behind Bertelsmann and
Pearson, the parent companies of Random House and the Penguin Book
group, signing an agreement this week to combine our respective trade
book activities.

One of the defining characteristics of
the new company I am most excited about is that it will be author-
publisher- and editor-centered – just like Random House. When we
join together we will be retaining the distinct identities of both
companies’ imprints and you will benefit from an extraordinary
breadth of publishing choices and editorial talents and experience.
Our Random House imprint leadership remains endowed with creative
autonomy, and financial resources, to decide which books to publish,
and how to publish them. We expect this to continue in our new
business, where we will build on the history and heritage of each of
our storied brands. Your relationship with your editor and your
publishing team will be unaffected by the new company.A
diversified retail and distribution marketplace for print and digital
formats remains a key priority for Random House now, and in the
future. Our investments in enhancing the supply chain and our
marketing support will supply more services for physical retailers,
while expanding our opportunities in the digital space. We expect to
create more tools to help you take full advantage of the many online
marketing platforms for growing your readership. And we certainly
want to continue to expand our Author Portal, which has become an
enormously popular and useful resource for so many.

For now,
it is business as usual at Random House and Penguin. Soon, we hope to
join together to offer an even deeper backlist, alongside our newly
published titles. In our partnership, we will be even better
positioned to provide copyright protection and support your
intellectual property.

Random House and Bertelsmann believe
strongly in the future of trade book publishing, and our continuing
commercial and cultural success is a major reason why Bertelsmann is
extending and expanding its investment and support with the new
company. For us, separately and in partnership, it is and always will
be about the books. Your books.

All my best, Marcus
Dohle"

If
you are as impressed as I am by large quantities of horse manure, the
true significance of this announcement will have completely escaped
you.

So now, boys and girls, we will have a pop
quiz.

What is the underlying meaning of the above passage?

a)
This merger does not affect me, because I am never going to get
published anyway.

b)
WOW! If I ever do get published by Bertelsmann/Pearson/
Random House/Penguin, I'll be famous all over the world, and maybe
even in Outer Space.c)
What the hell is a deeper backlist?d)
It is and always will be about the books. Your books.

(The
correct answer is: e) We're screwed.)(The
first sentence is the tip-off. Notice the close proximity of the
terms: "entrust", "mandate", "mission"
and "everyone, everywhere, in every format, and on every
platform.")

The reason that the union of the two largest
publishers in the world is terrible for writers is unclearly stated
in paragraph two: "we
will build on the history and heritage of each of our storied
brands."

Thehistory
of these publishing houses has nothing whatsoever to do with storied
brands. In fact, it has nothing to do with "marketing support",
"platforms", or "supply chains" either. The
origin of Random House, as stated by Bennet Cerf, was "to
publish a few books on the side at random."
And so they did. Many random authors, who couldn't find a home
elsewhere, were published by Random House (Ayn Rand and Jerzy
Kosinski among them). The heritage of Penguin was to
publish Lolita, Lady
Chatterly's Lover,
and Deer
Park,
books which had been rejected by scores of publishers (back then we
still had scores), and which, once they were finally published, made
it onto banned book lists everywhere.

This is the proud
heritage of Random House and Penguin: to publish groundbreaking new concepts without regard to the "market." Because that is the
purpose of a publishing house - the dissemination of ideas.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

The first time I heard the phrase
“author platform,” it instantly conjured an image of
myself, with a noose around my neck, standing in front of a crowd of
people who were waiting for the Big Drop.

I hoped it would be a quick, painless
death. So far, it hasn't been. I have spent many a grueling hour
trying to build this “platform,” only to discover that I am not
heavy enough. Day after day, I am left dangling. Gasping for air.

Those of you who were born prior to the
invention of the horseless carriage may not know what an “author platform” is.
So, I am going to explain it to you.

An author platform is Newspeak for
“fame.” In concrete terms, it means people recognize your name.
Perhaps you have won a contest, such as the Nobel Prize. Or maybe you
have not sent your
kid up in a balloon, or faked a moon landing like those chaps at
NASA. People must know who you are in order for you to build a
platform.

Nowadays, many agents will insist that
you have a platform before they will even consider
representing you. This is a catch-22. How can you be a “name” if
you have not yet been published?

The fact is that you must start building your platform well in advance of contacting an agent or publishing your book. Achieving a following takes several years, But even if your name is not a household word by the time you publish, you can - and should - set the stage for future fame.

1. Put up a website. I assume you
have already done this. Without a website, YOU DON'T EXIST. Click HERE for tips on how to design an author's website.

2. Write articles and publish them online. There are plenty of
online journals and ezines. Basically, you must turn yourself into
an expert. Use ALL of your experience for this. Have you had a
child? Several? Have you taught them to drive? Did you survive high
school? Do you know how to make a smashing cup of tea? Have you recently discovered the cure for cancer? Pick your area of expertise. Everything counts. Read You're an Expert! How to Make Money Writing Nonfiction Articles for some great tips on making the most out of your expertise.

3. If you are a fiction writer, you also have the option of publishing
short stories. Click HERE to find a literary magazine that
will give your story a home.

4. If you have a book ready for publication, and not even that agent in Zanzibar will answer
your query letter, then you may want consider going Indie. But, before you self-publish, you should post excerpts from your
forthcoming book. (This is a great marketing strategy.) Many reviewers are willing to post excerpts from forthcoming novels on their blogs. Here is a list of over 400 reviewers who accept self-published books, many of whom are delighted to post excerpts. Most accept traditionally published books as well, and more than a few will be happy to interview you.

6. Once you have published some articles give talks,
in person, and give webinars and/or interviews online. Read Arranging Your Own Book Tour.

7. BLOG!! I cannot stress this enough. Agents who receive your query will google you. If you maintain a blog - on any topic - they will read a few posts. (So make sure you check grammar, spelling, and punctuation.) Readers will also look for your blog. One of the many benefits of a blog is that it allows you to acquire an email list. You may not need that list now, but I guarantee you will need it later when you send out your pre-order announcements. (You need pre-orders for your book.)

Even if you plan to publish your book
the old-fashioned way (by either marrying or giving birth to an editor for a major
publishing house), you will have to build a platform, so you may
as well start now. The sooner you get an online presence, the easier it will be to promote your work.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Rejections are hard on budding young authors - even on old, famous ones.

The following is a list of authors who have received what should have been soul-crushing rejections. Thankfully, their souls were not crushed, and their books went on to become icons in the literary world.

Nowadays, publishers don't put their thoughts into writing (although, believe me, they still say them in private). In some ways, it's a pity. Authors who have achieved success should have the pleasure of gloating over the idiocies of publishers who have dismissed them.

From the American literary publisher Knopf's Archives at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin ...

__________________________

Jorge
Luis Borges

'utterly
untranslatable'

Isaac
Bashevis Singer

'It's
Poland and the rich Jews again.'

Anais
Nin

'There
is no commercial advantage in acquiring her, and, in my opinion, no
artistic.'

Jack
Kerouac

'His
frenetic and scrambled prose perfectly express the feverish travels
of the Beat Generation. But is that enough? I don't think so.'

Lady
Chatterley's Lover by D H Lawrence

'for
your own sake do not publish this book.'

The
Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

'an
irresponsible holiday story'

Lord
of the Flies by William Golding

'an
absurd and uninteresting fantasy which was rubbish and
dull.'

Watership
Down by Richard Adams

'older
children wouldn't like it because its language was too
difficult.'

On
Sylvia Plath

'There
certainly isn't enough genuine talent for us to take notice.'

Crash
by J. G Ballard

‘The
author of this book is beyond psychiatric help.'

The
Deer Park by Norman Mailer

'This
will set publishing back 25 years.'

Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos

'Do
you realize, young woman, that you're the first American writer ever
to poke fun at sex.'

The
Diary of Anne Frank

‘The
girl doesn’t, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling
which would lift that book above the “curiosity” level.’

Lust
for Life by Irving Stone

(which
was rejected 16 times, but found a publisher and went on to sell
about 25 million copies)

‘
A
long, dull novel about an artist.’

Barchester
Towers by Anthony Trollope

'The
grand defect of the work, I think, as a work of art is the
low-mindedness and vulgarity of the chief actors. There is hardly a
"lady" or "gentleman" amongst them.'

Carrie
by Stephen King

'We
are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative
utopias. They do not sell.'

Catch
– 22by
Joseph Heller

‘I
haven’t really the foggiest idea about what the man is trying to
say… Apparently the author intends it to be funny – possibly even
satire – but it is really not funny on any intellectual level …
From your long publishing experience you will know that it is less
disastrous to turn down a work of genius than to turn down talented
mediocrities.’

The
Spy who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré

‘You’re
welcome to le Carré – he hasn’t got any future.’

Animal
Farmby
George Orwell

‘It
is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA’

Lady
Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde

‘My
dear sir,

I
have read your manuscript. Oh, my dear sir.’

Lolita
by Vladimir Nabokov

‘...
overwhelmingly nauseating, even to an enlightened Freudian … the
whole thing is an unsure cross between hideous reality and improbable
fantasy. It often becomes a wild neurotic daydream … I recommend
that it be buried under a stone for a thousand years.’